Yogyakarta — Scores of demonstrators from the Yogyakarta Domestic Worker Protection Network (JPPRT) took to the streets on Monday February 14 demanding decent wages and protection for domestic workers.

According to action coordinator Henny, the domestic workers’ demands are totally reasonable because in reality domestic workers are still vulnerable to physical, psychological, social and economic violence.

Domestic workers (PRT) represent the largest group of working women, which in global terms total more than 100 million around the world, with 4 million in Indonesia and more than 6 million others working overseas. In the special Yogyakarta province of Central Java alone there are more than 36,000 domestic workers.Domestic workers’ living and working conditions are still inadequate and they often experience rights violations, being paid extremely low wages, are vulnerable to exploitation and have no labour guarantees.

Domestic workers are still not acknowledged as part of the work force and legal protection, both at the national as well as international level, is still very low. This situation provides more and more room for the violation of domestic workers’ rights. The government meanwhile gives the impression of simply waiting for a new case of abuse to occur and only then does it takes steps.

“Because of this we are demanding that immediate wage improvements be made, the immediate enactment of a domestic workers’ protection law and the immediate establishment of a legal protection system for domestic workers at the municipal and regency level”, said Henny in a speech. [bw]

* Seruu.com - February 14, 2011.

---

 Domestic workers turn Hotel Indonesia into ’giant laundry’

Andi Saputra, Jakarta — Despite the drizzle, scores of domestic workers (PRT) remained indifferent to the falling rain and continued washing their bosses’ clothing. After being washed, it was then dried and ironed. So it was that on February 14 the Hotel Indonesia (HI) traffic circle in Central Jakarta became a giant laundry encircling the entire roundabout.

During the action the protesters also hung up T-shirts with “Bosses prosperous because of domestic workers” and “Recognition, rights and decent work for domestic workers” written on them along with a giant billboard with the message “100 pieces of domestic workers’ washing drying so the bosses can wear neat and clean clothes”.

The demonstrators, who came from the Domestic Workers Action Committee (KAPRT), also held a theatrical action depicting their demands and symbolising the labour performed by domestic workers.

“When Indonesia commemorates National Domestic Workers Day on February 15, around 2.6 million domestic workers will still lack legal protection”, said one of the speakers, Umi (26), at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Jl. MH Thamrin on Monday.

“We are demanding the immediate enactment of the Domestic Workers’ Law. This domestic workers’ day [falls against] the backdrop of a 14 year-old domestic worker Sunarsih who died after being mistreated by their employer in 2001. The employer repeated this again with four of their domestic workers in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. However they were never punished”, asserted Umi.

The action attracted the attention of drivers racing past the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle with several opening their car windows to watch the comical theatrical action. One road user who also has a domestic worker said they were greatly assisted by the presence of a domestic worker in the home.

“In my case, everything is discussed with the domestic worker. If my domestic worker appears tired, okay enough, they’re not made to work any more. There’s also a washing machine in the house right, a vacuum cleaner and so on. So yes, it’s quite light work for the domestic worker”, commented Bayu (46), a resident of Pondok Labu in South Jakarta as they passed through the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. (asp/nwk)

* Detik.com - February 14, 2011.

---

 Workers Strike Over Wage Hike They Say Is Too Low

4 December 2010

Jakarta. Thousands of workers in and around an industrial estate in East Jakarta went on a daylong strike on Friday over the new monthly minimum wage announced for the capital.

Striking workers brought much of the Kawasan Berikat Nusantara industrial estate to a standstill with their action.

The Jakarta administration last month announced a monthly minimum wage of Rp 1.29 million ($140) for next year, a 15.8 percent increase from the current minimum wage of Rp 1.12 million.

Labor unions criticized the increase as too low while employers complained it was too high.

During Friday’s action, the workers said the new minimum wage still fell short of the Reasonable Living Cost Index (KHL), which for Jakarta is pegged at Rp 1. 4 million a month this year.
Aan, 34, who took part in the action, said the strikers included members of the Metal, Electronics and Machinery Industries Union (SP-LEM).

After demonstrating inside the industrial estate, the protesters formed a convoy of motorcycles, minibuses and vans and traveled to City Hall in Central Jakarta, causing massive traffic jams.

Deded Sukendar, head of the Jakarta Manpower and Transmigration Agency, said last month that the new minimum wage would take effect on Jan. 1 and would apply to unmarried workers.

“That figure represents the main salary, but most employers will also provide transportation and meal allowances, so the take-home pay will likely be higher than that,” he said.

Companies that cannot afford to pay their employees based on the new figure, he said, can apply for an exemption from the administration.

“But we’d need to really examine whether such companies are really financially incapable of complying,” he said, adding that not all companies would be considered for exemptions.

“They’d have to submit their financial audits for us to study.”

He also said that with the 15.8 percent increase, the minimum wage in Jakarta would, for the first time in two years, surpass those in satellite cities Depok, Bogor and Bekasi.

Mas Muanam, from the Jakarta Workers Union (Aspek), said after the new minimum wage was announced that the workers’ demand that it be based on the KHL was outweighed by the financial considerations of employers.

“During discussions, the wage council concluded that if the minimum wage was raised to the same level as the KHL, most companies would go bankrupt,” he said.

A day before the new minimum wage was announced on Nov. 27, thousands of workers demonstrated near the Kawasan Berikat Nusantara industrial estate, causing traffic to back up for several kilometers.

They were demanding a 26 percent increase in the minimum wage.

(Jakarta Globe)

---

 Workers in Java and Sumatra protest low wages, arbitrary dismissals

Liputan6.com, Yogyakarta – Scores of workers in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta from the Security Employees Union (SPK) and the United Indonesian Labour Movement (PPBI) demonstrated at the Yogyakarta mayor’s office on Thursday afternoon, November 25. They were demanding wage improvements.

Unfurling banners the demonstrators also urged the government to abolish contract labour systems and defend the Indonesian working class. They also said that the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ignored the plight of Indonesian domestic workers. The foreign exchange heroes [as the government refers to them] are simply being sent off without guarantees or protection.

In the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, students and workers demonstrated in front the Negara Grahadi building where they opposed the Surabaya city minimum wage for this year, which they consider unreasonable. The demonstrators also urged East Java Governor Sukarwo to immediately revise the 2011 minimum municipal wage.

In the North Sumatra city of Medan, scores of dismissed workers pelted the North Sumatra Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) office with rotten eggs. The former PT WRP Buana Multicorpora employees said that that the people’s representatives (legislators) had failed them in dealing with the problem of workers who have been arbitrary dismissed.

The protest action continued for around one-and-a-half hours. Unfortunately, their demands were not realised. (WIL/SHA)

* Liputan 6 SCTV - November 25, 2010.

---

 Former McDonald’s workers stage rally

Jakarta — More than 100 former employees of the McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain held a rally in front of the Jakarta Police on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta.

The employees demanded the police arrest the owners of Indonesia’s McDonald’s franchises because they did not pay the employees’ salaries when ownership was handed over to Toni Jack’s Indonesia.

“The welfare benefit money has been embezzled, the last six months’ salaries remains unpaid, savings and cooperative money has also been defrauded, the workers have been neglected,” one of the protesters, Guntur, said in a statement.The employees, now working at Toni Jack’s, said the McDonald’s franchise owners had stolen hundreds of millions of rupiah from them in the form of unpaid wages and social welfare benefits. McDonald’s franchise owners were not available for comment.

* Jakarta Post - November 25, 2010.

---

 Workers mark Obama visit with protest against labour law revisions

Reject Labor Law No.13 2003 Revision, SBY-Boediono Regime Capitalist

Jakarta — Several moments before the arrival of US President Barack Obama in Jakarta on the afternoon of Wednesday November 10, thousands of workers held a protest action demanding the cancellation of planned revisions to Law Number 13/2003 on Labour, which they say will harm workers.

During the action, the workers “occupied” Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta and as a consequence, traffic heading north from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to Harmoni was brought to a complete standstill.

Several demonstrators also forced Transjakarta busses coming from Harmoni in the direction of Sudirman to stop in order to attract the attention of officials, so police would open access to the road in front of the State Palace. This created tensions between the workers and police.After maintaining their position for several hours along a stretch of Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, police finally opened access to the road and allowed the demonstrators to protest in front of the Palace.

During the action, the demonstrators demanded that the revisions to the labour law be cancelled because it will inflict severe financial harm to the working class, which is still not prosperous. Before ending the action, the protesters set fire to a coffin to symbolise the death of workers’ future. (RIE)

* Metrotvnews.com - November 10, 2010.

---

 Workers say no to law revision

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung — Thousands of workers from across West Java
staged a rally in Bandung on Tuesday protesting a plan to revise Law No
13/2003 on manpower, claiming it was planned to enhance the investment
climate by satisfying businesspeople while sacrificing workers’ rights.

The protest was held during a visit to Bandung made by Manpower and
Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar to officially launch the one-
million job creation program in the province.Arriving on motorbikes and in trucks from the Bandung area, Sumedang,
Purwakarta, Karawang and Bekasi, demonstrators blocked Jl. Diponegoro,
which connects the provincial legislative building and the governor’s
office at the Gasibu Square where the launching ceremony was held.

The draft revision would cut the lump sum severance for dismissed employees
down from the present level of nine times their monthly salary to only
seven months compensation, rally coordinator Roy Jinto Ferianto said. "We
will fight very hard to reject it," he said.

The Tuesday protest went peacefully, with personnel from the Bandung Police
standing guard. The protesters were not able to directly convey their
message to the minister or the governor.

Muhaimin, who refused to meet worker representatives, said it would require
a long process before revisions to the law could be made, but added that
inputs from workers and businesspeople were still being considered.

"Revision is a long-term process which needs to be done to eliminate labor
difficulties while at the same time developing a better business climate,"
Muhaimin said. Muhaiman called on workers not to worry, adding that his
ministry would soon issue an outsourcing regulation to ensure their
protection and welfare.

* Jakarta Post - October 27, 2010.

---